Netflix may have its finger on the true crime pulse, but the platform has not had a documentary as bizarre as Love, Stalker, Killer. The twists and turns present in the tale seem more at home in a Gillian Flynn novel than in real life.
Tragically, for the family of the victim, Cari Farver, this is no stalker thriller. Her loved ones waited years for a resolution to these true life events. Lover, Stalker, Killer covers the case of an alleged stalking gone wrong. In 2013 Farver was embarking on a new chapter in her life. She had been raising her teenage son, Max, by herself for some time until finally, she found a lucrative job in computer programming. The only issue: It was an hour’s commute one way.
Farver decided to stay with a new man she was seeing for a week to finish a project. She had only been seeing Dave Kroupa casually, but the two were sparking, and it seemed like a good idea. Events took a bizarre twist when one day after Kroupa left for work, he started getting increasingly aggressive texts from Farver.
The first indicated that she wanted to move in with him, even though the two had agreed to keep things light and casual. When he declined, she grew angry and told him to never talk to him again and that he had ruined her life. Kroupa thought that would be the end of a short liaison, but it was only the start of a nightmare that wouldn’t conclude for years to come.
Who was stalking Dave Kroupa?
For years, Kroupa would get hundreds of emails a day, allegedly from Farver. She threatened him, his family, and even his ex-girlfriend Shanna “Liz” Golyar. He had been seeing Golyar around the same time as Farver and the two women had met in passing only once. While this was transpiring, Farver’s family grew increasingly worried.
Farver had failed to show up to pick up her son for a family wedding, and refused to talk to her mother on the phone. When her mother, Nancy Raney, reported Farver missing, the authorities failed to take it seriously. Because people were claiming to be in contact with her, and her history of bipolar depression, police chalked it up to Farver being off her medication and simply abandoning her family. Raney knew this wasn’t the case, and continued to press them on it for years.
Meanwhile, Kroupa’s harassment was only increasing. The trauma that he and Golyar were experiencing had brought them closer together, and they started seeing each other again. Kroupa was guilty of bringing an unstable person into their lives who was targeting Golyar.
Though no one could locate Farver, there seemed to be proof of her existence in her actions. Kroupa was physically unharmed, but Golyar seemed to be receiving a lot of harassment. She also received threatening messages, which reached a fever pitch when her house was set on fire. Her two dogs, a cat, and a snake perished in the blaze. Kroupa also received images of Golyar in danger; Farver had allegedly taken her hostage, sending Kroupa pictures with a knife held to Golyar’s throat. This chain of events continued for years — long enough for law enforcement to start putting things together.
Two new detectives took on the case, and looked at it with fresh eyes. They started to become suspicious of Golyar, especially when looking at the data from her phone. The technical investigators had a hard time pinpointing where Farver’s emails seemed to be coming from. The IP address was pinging from all around the world, clearly hiding where it was coming from.
But after a long time of combing through her data, investigators found files that Golyar had deleted. The most incriminating were pictures on her phone of what appeared to be the leg of someone deceased. Farver’s mother recognized the body because of distinct tattoos that could only belong to her daughter. Authorities took that as confirmation that Farver had been dead the whole time, and the person clearly behind the stalking was Golyar herself.
What happened to Liz Golyar?
Police quickly honed in on Golyar as the culprit. After meeting Farver for one moment in passing, she murdered her, and then impersonated her through texts. She went so far as to burn down her own house, all to make it appear that Farver was still alive and stalking her and her boyfriend, Kroupa. A devastating end to a tragic story. The results, however, gave closure to Farver’s family.
The entire time, they were certain something had happened to her, and now they were vindicated. Golyar was arrested for the murder of Farver, and sentenced to life in prison. She is currently serving her sentence at the Nebraska Correctional Facility For Women. Since the police accused her, Golyar has maintained her innocence. Now fans of true crime documentaries interested in the details of the case can catch the Netflix documentary, Lover, Stalker, Killer when it premieres on February 9, 2024.